In his book The Colonizer and the Colonized Albert Memmi book, explores how a bad act committed by a non-white person often comes to represent the whole community, while an act committed by a white person reflects only that individual. This is certainly true when it comes to Muslims in our society. For a healthy multicultural and multifaith society it is important for us to demonstrate consideration for our neighbour who is different from us. To do so it is essential to understand those who are different from us. Embarking on such a journey requires us to begin with an open mind. While revisiting the works of Tariq Modood (Not easy being British and Still not easy being British) I encountered Robin Richardson spelling out the hallmarks of open-mindedness:
- Readiness to change one’s views, both of others and of oneself, in the light of new facts and evidence
- Not deliberately distorting, or recklessly over-simplifying, incontestable facts
- Not caricaturing the views of people with whom one disagrees
- Not over-generalising
- Not using double standards when comparing and contrasting others with oneself
- Seeing difference and disagreement as a resource for understanding more about oneself, not as a threat
- Seeking to understand other people’s views and standpoints in their own terms and recognising where they are coming from – the narratives and stories with which they interpret events
- Not claiming greater certainty than is warranted
- Seeking consensus or at least a modus vivendi which keeps channels of communication open and permits all to maintain dignity
Some of this brought to mind the work of the Birmingham-based project The Feast whose guiding principles included the following:
- Listen to what everyone has to say
- Do not tell others what they believe, but let them tell you
- Do not treat someone as a spokesperson for their faith or culture
The Christian Muslim Forum also provides ethical guidelines for interaction between our different communities.
Multicultural understanding
During my 54 years in the UK there is much that I have learnt about who I am, where I have come from as well as something (not enough) about those who are different from me. Starting with the Asian Studies Course in the late 1970s I continue to take (and create) opportunities for multicultural understanding amongst our diverse communities. My recent focus in this respect has been on learning, and encouraging others to learn, about our Muslim neighbours.
There continue to be some useful resources to aid one’s learning about Muslims. I was able to add to my collection the book Being Muslim Today by Saqib Iqbal Qureshi. It has a very telling sub-title: reclaiming the faith from orthodoxy and Islamophobia. The book opens with a question from the author’s 15 year old son: “Papa, is Islām really more violent than other religions?” Qureshi explains how his son is teased by his fellow students, who mock his Muslim identity and insinuate that is a terrorist.
He pushed back against the taunting, but deep down he wasn’t entirely sure. Was his religion really one of violence? It was clear by the expression on his face that Mustafa didn’t have a solid, grounded answer. And no wonder. So much of what we’re bombarded with links Muslims to violence.
The author wonders: “Where was my son—or any curious Muslim—supposed to find clear answers about what the Islāmic take on violence was—or gender or any number of issues?” He makes clear that “being Muslim in the West is incredibly tough.” He explains how the ordinary Muslims live their lives surrounded by opposing camps:
In one corner, you have a sizable chunk of the non-Muslim Western “intelligentsia,” who feed off misrepresenting Muslims—highlighting every act of violence committed by a Muslim anywhere in the world and linking it to Islām. They are uninterested in any other Muslim story that runs counter to their “Muslim is violent” narrative.
Then there is what he describes as the “Muslim establishment itself”. This is where, according to the author one finds orthodox leadership who demand unthinking adherence to a religious framework that raises more questions than the orthodoxy will admit to.
Unfortunately, it’s under this umbrella that most Muslims reside, meekly accepting that their role is unthinking adherence to whatever the imams, sort of clerics, tell them, lest they be accused of waging war against God—which can then translate into punishments all the way to murder.
According to the author there are a tiny minority in the Muslim community who he describes as …
the orthodoxy’s violent half-cousins, the lunatic fringe, the textbook antisocial personality disorder exemplars, who seem obsessed with making Islām live up to its reputation of cartoon villainy in the West. This is a group assembled for a brawl, not a theological debate. In fact, study after study has demonstrated that while identifying with Islām, this group is typically illiterate about it. It takes the many legitimate complaints that Muslims have and twists that righteous anger into something horrible.
Islām is never out of the news, and it’s rarely allowed to be a positive story. The battle among bigoted influencers, the hundreds of millions of Islamophobes, obstinate orthodoxy, and the lunatic fringe has crept steadily into our society to a point where it overwhelms Muslims in Europe, North America, and beyond in our interconnected world.
According to Qureshi, the community has failed to equip younger Muslims with resources to explore questions that arise for them about Islam and which are either dismissed or answered less than honestly—with explanations that are culturally acceptable but wholly inaccurate.
I agree with the author that it is important to understand and have a truthful conversation about Islam and Muslims, instead of one informed by generalisations and stereotypes. For this we need resources that are accurate and written by insiders of the Muslim community. This book, therefore, should go someway in helping Muslims to answer some of the questions that arise about their faith. Equally, it should provide a resource for the wider community who desire to understand their Muslim neighbour and their beliefs.